8/23 He certainly had not desired his daughter not to meet the man. He could understand that unless some affront had been offered such an edict enforced as to the conduct of a young lady would induce all her acquaintance to suppose that she was either very much in love or else very prone to misbehave herself. He feared, indeed, that she was very much in love, but it would not be prudent to tell her secret to all the world. If she would be obedient in one particular, she would probably be so in the other;--and, indeed, he did not at all doubt her obedience. She would obey, but would take care to show him that she was made miserable by obeying. |